When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

In the past 30 years, light artists have reimagined an art form that has always had the ability to turn the night sky, or a simple window, into luminescence. Last fall, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts turned its southern glass wall into a parade of sound-sensing lights, Lightswarm, that changes with the movements of nearby people and things. Future Cities Lab, the San Francisco design company behind Lightswarm, has originated another notable light sculpture. Located by the YBCA's steps at 701 Mission, Murmur Wall will light up in arresting ways as it incorporates local trending search engine results and social media postings. Onlookers can offer their own contributions, which will feed into the Murmur Wall's data stream and light up the sculpture. What's trending in San Francisco? If you're walking by the YBCA, you can see firsthand — at least through light patterns that reflect the city's volatile internet habits.
Murmur Wall debuts Thursday at 6 p.m. and continues through May 31, 2017, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. Free; 415-978-2700 or ybca.org. More

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We don't often go out of our way for restrooms, but in the case of Macy's sixth-floor ladies room (sorry guys: you'll just have to make do with having everything else), all who pass through its doors will understand why it's worth the effort.

A jury considers whether a store clerk in the Bayview acted in cold blood or in self-defense when he shot a woman he accused of shoplifting.

Cameras recorded two guys Mohsin says provided the muscle during the alleged robbery.

Bayview vigilante

Like so many stories in the Bayview that end badly, Haggag Mohsin's
started with a gun. Yet the 9mm semiautomatic pistol with the loaded
magazine kept behind the counter of his brother's hip-hop clothing
store, Pop Ya Collar, wasn't supposed to be used to commit a crime, but
to protect him from being the victim of one.

Before the 21-year-old Mohsin pulled the trigger, October 11, 2006,
had started like any other day. He opened Pop Ya Collar around 10 a.m.,
where he manned the register. His brother Adeeb came in to chat for a
bit before walking to his own post behind the cash register at Bayview
Liquors, the other family business on Third Street, the main
thoroughfare of the crime-ridden San Francisco neighborhood.

Mohsin's job wasn't exactly exciting, but it was dangerous. Two
months earlier, he had been robbed at gunpoint. Afterward, he rode
around with a cop looking for the suspects, but none were ever
caught.

At about 12:45 p.m. on October 11, two men came into the store,
their hands drawn up into oversize sleeves. Mohsin didn't know if they
were armed, but the one with dreads and a black hoodie told him it was
"gonna go down" and demanded that he "act normal or we'll knock the
fuck out of you." Mohsin thought the other guy, in a camouflage parka
and sunglasses, was the same punk who had showed up days after the
previous robbery with a promise: If he called the cops, "I'll bust you
in the back of your head or burn your store down with you in it." Then
two African-American women with big purses walked in. Mohsin remembered
one as the lady who'd asked him just days prior whether his clothing
had security beepers. They headed straight for the storage room in back
while the two men kept an eye on Mohsin.

The two women eventually came out with their purses looking "huge,"
Mohsin would later testify, the older one setting a pair of jeans on
the counter. After they left, he picked up the clothes strewn on the
ground and checked the storeroom. Yep, several empty shoeboxes.

Mohsin peeked out the front door. To his surprise, the group
lingered outside, talking as if nothing had happened. Although he
didn't know them by name, Mohsin saw that the two women he suspected of
shoplifiting had gotten into a red Honda parked near the store —
Deborah Smith in the driver's seat, and the younger one, Jamie Hatch,
sitting shotgun. Recalling the arson threat, Mohsin decided to close up
shop to let things calm down and head to his brother's liquor store to
call the cops. He grabbed the gun, cocked back the slide to clink a
bullet into the chamber, and stuffed it into the pocket of his
hoodie.

Walking out the store's only exit, Mohsin shut the door and locked
its two locks. The noise drew the attention of the guys (later
identified in a witness interview as "RJ" and "Killa"), who had acted
as muscle while the women raided the storeroom. The men were standing
near the Honda, which had a "Fear This!" sticker stretching across its
back bumper. As Mohsin started to shut the store's security gate, the
guys strutted toward him with "scary faces," he'd later say. When they
were just five feet away with no sign of stopping, Mohsin grabbed the
gun from his pocket and fired a round just "to scare [them] off."

The bullet shattered the back windshield of the Honda, which was
pulling away, and pierced Smith's neck. The two men ran down the
street, while Smith screamed that she'd been shot and frantically drove
down Oakdale to find help. The women eventually spotted a police
officer and told him Smith had been shot by the Arab storekeeper.

As the cops strode into Pop Ya Collar minutes later, Mohsin turned
and stuffed the gun into a rack of T-shirts. The police asked him if he
knew why they were there, and he answered, "Because I shot someone. Are
they okay? They're not hurt, are they?" The police drove him to the
Bayview police station for questioning, where Mohsin insisted he had
fired the gun because he feared for his safety, but the police
investigator didn't buy it. The women in the car had a different story:
They hadn't swiped a thing. Mohsin had followed them to their car
parked around the corner, rapped on the window, and shot into the car
as they drove away.

Despite Mohsin's spotless record and claim that he was acting in
self-defense, police turned over the case to the district attorney for
charging the next day.

Last month, he sat in the courthouse next to City Hall, facing
charges of shooting into an occupied vehicle and causing great bodily
injury with a firearm, which carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years
to life. That was in addition to two charges of assault with a
firearm.

Mohsin's public defender alleges that the District Attorney's office
just wants to look tough on crime in the Bayview. Although the
prosecutor denies being overzealous, there's no questioning the fact
that the DA's case, to a large degree, rested on the shoulders of a
habitual shoplifter who couldn't keep her story straight. Hatch, who
had a falling-out with Smith soon after the shooting and recently
talked to SF Weekly from jail, wonders whether her former cohort
really wants justice or just a fat check in her pending lawsuit against
the store.

Law aside, the Bayview had its own system of justice for Haggag
Mohsin. Hours after the shooting, his store went up in flames.

Fresh off his day job as a civilian employee at the Oakland Police
Department, Adnan Mohsin pulls up on Third Street in his black Honda
with a sticker that, according to Adnan, declares "Only one God;
Muhammad is the prophet" in Arabic across the rear window to start his
night shift at Bayview Liquors. Adnan plucks a black .40-caliber pistol
out of the armrest and swathes it in a checkered kaffiyeh scarf. He
crosses the street, the bundle in hand, and enters the store he and
Adeeb, two of Haggag's older brothers, now keep running as much out of
defiance as economic survival.

Slideshows

Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"